NeLH Health Informatics (NeLH HI) discussion group

Birmingham 19.11.02

personal report by Rod Ward

This meeting was convened by Di Millen, Head of
Informatics Development and Academic Relations at the NHSIA, to "consider
further development of what is currently a pilot Health Informatics
VBL within the NeLH". It was held at the NHSIA HQ
Aqueous 2, Aston
Cross, Birmingham.

The meeting was led by Di Millen and Ann Brice who is working 50% with NeLH
specialist libraries & 50% with the NHS modernisation agency. There were
about a dozen delegates mostly from trust Information depts/libraries with a GP
doing an MSc in Informatics & a orthotist from Glasgow representing CPIAG.
Members of the NHSIA NeLH team also dropped in and out as they had another
meeting at the same time!

Ann started with a review of the
NeLH history and context
explaining that it was still a pilot but that the outline business case had
been accepted by the DoH in June 2002, and outlining the processes for the move
to a full service. She highlighted principles and priorities and emphasised the
importance of user involvement and their access and skills. The questions the
NeLH team wanted help with from this meeting with included; who is the audience
for NeLH Hi? who are the stakeholders in the process? what types of questions
will people come with? what do we already have? and how should the process be
taken forward?

Ian McKinnell then gave a short presentation exploring the current state of
the VBLs and the vision for a clearer information landscape with greater
sharing of resources including bodies such as the NHS Modernisation agency. He
described the plans for the development of a resource management system
including the server, Database and web interface (utilising "wrapper
pages") to enhance the user experience and improve the navigation and
searching (possibly both global NeLH & within a specialist library). He
talked about the current procurement process for both the technology and
content for the specialist libraries - which is set out at:
http://www.nhsia.nhs.uk/nelh/pages/procure_specialist.aspand
http://www.nhsia.nhs.uk/nelh/pages/procure_content.asp.

The attendees were then asked to work in small groups to try to
answer some of the questions set out above. Some thought the audience for
NeLHHI was "information staff" in the NHS others that it was everyone
in the NHS (clinical staff), and some included patients & public. Wider
possible user groups including; Higher Education, social services,
charity/private sector etc were also considered. The perennial question about
whether National meant England or UK was also raised.

A wide range of bodies who could be considered stakeholders was
also compiled the top 5 being;